Re: New Geologic Epoch

[don ohmes <d_ohmes@yahoo.com>]

Amen to that. Learn the markers and be done w/ it...

----- Original Message ----
From: T. Michael Keesey <keesey@gmail.com>
To: Dinosaur Mailing List <dinosaur@usc.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2008 5:34:53 PM
Subject: Re: New Geologic Epoch

On 
Jan 
29, 
2008 
2:10 
PM, 
David 
Marjanovic 
<david.marjanovic@gmx.at> 
wrote:
>
> 
How? 
Reversing 
the 
silly 
"subera" 
designation 
for 
the 
Mississippian 
and 
the
> 
Pennsylvanian 
that 
means 
the 
Carboniferous 
now 
has 
5 
epochs 
consisting 
of 
1
> 
stage 
each 
(some 
of 
them 
very 
long!) 
and 
1 
epoch 
consisting 
of 
a 
whopping 
2
> 
stages?

All 
this 
dithering 
over 
ranks 
reminds 
me 
why 
phylogenetic 
nomenclature
was 
invented. 
I'm 
no 
geologist, 
but 
couldn't 
something 
similar 
be 
done
for 
geochronological 
units? 
Why 
not 
just 
define 
the 
"Mississipian" 
as
the 
unit 
beginning 
with 
[insert 
geochronological 
marker 
here] 
and
ending 
with 
[insert 
geochronological 
marker 
here], 
and 
then 
forget
about 
debates 
over 
whether 
it's 
a 
subera 
or 
an 
infraformation 
or 
a
superstage 
or 
whatever? 
As 
with 
clades, 
units 
include 
or 
overlap 
other
units 
-- 
seems 
like 
a 
decent 
analogy 
to 
me.

-- 
T. 
Michael 
Keesey
Director 
of 
Technology
Exopolis, 
Inc.
2894 
Rowena 
Avenue 
Ste. 
B
Los 
Angeles, 
California 
90039
http://exopolis.com/
--
http://3lbmonkeybrain.blogspot.com/